So we've taken the next step in our digital publishing project. We've gone all the way back to 1984, our first year publishing, and put together "The Hacker Digest - Volume 1" for Kindles, Nooks, tablets, computers, the works. It's all DRM-free as well.

This is not simply a bunch of scans of our early issues. We've rearranged the contents so the entire year is readable in a book form, just as we've done with our later volumes. So there's an articles section, a letters section, a month by month synopsis of the "latest" technological developments and predictions, plus a whole lot of data that really was exciting to hackers back then and may make you laugh today. While the actual technology being discussed in 1984 will seem primitive today, the philosophy and speculation about where the world of computers and phones was heading will make for some intriguing reading in the 21st century. You will certainly learn a number of surprising facts.

For those reading this on a Kindle or Nook, we've gone to considerable lengths to make sure every single character is accurately represented on your device. This means we literally proofread every word and set of numbers from the original issues so that it all was preserved exactly as originally printed. (We also preserved any typos that were in the originals as revisionism is an ugly thing.) While this may border on obsessive behavior, we feel history needs to be clear and readable in order for it to have any true value.

Yes, it was a royal pain in the ass but well worth the effort if the experiment is a success. Such a project can take weeks, even months in order to get everything right. Despite the torture, we want to eventually create archives of the remaining 24 years in all of these formats. We've made it cheap enough to be attractive and we've disabled any copy protection options. A strong show of support from the community (specifically, not just copying it from a friend) will keep future releases coming your way.